Friday 25 October 2013

Another Big Man in a Small Boat


Remember my Simbo, the one sheet boat from the designs at Hannu's Boatyard?
Now a Californian named Ralph has launched another of Hannu's amazing designs, the Micro Auray Punt.
Filmed at Shoreline Park, Mountain View, the boat handles his 6ft frame with aplomb.
It looks like a super job. Ralph even made the oars himself, but as he used cheap pine he doesn't expect them to last very long.
The launch is reported in the 'Splash' section of Duckworks Magazine, which also features one of Hannu's single sheet kayaks.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

The Micro Auray is a very interesting design which makes a lot from a single sheet. It adheres the theory that the line of a chine should bisect the angle of the chine. The curvature of the sides and bottom are the same and there is no twist in the panels. As the water flows past the boat it's direction should be in line with the chine minimising turbulance. Boats of this shape tend to have a lot of rocker so the bow and stern transoms stay well clear of the water. Within the limitations of the waterline length they are pretty efficient. Peter Milne designed a double chine dinghy using exactly the same principles which would be easy to build at home from marine ply. It too had a funny looking front end. He called it the Fireball.

Chris Partridge said...

"Unknown" has asked me to reveal that he is, in fact, Cliff Martin. Thanks for the info, Cliff.

Gavin Atkin said...

And the Fireball remains a very quick sailing dinghy to this day.

My 10ft Light Dinghy design (free plans are around) is fairly close to this idea, but as it"s narrow enough to row reasonably well, bigger folks will need riggers. Gavin

Unknown said...

Chris, I always enjoy reading of your rowing expolts and others from your blogs. I have been aware of another account of the Micro Auray design design and use for some time that might interest you:

http://www.arahina.com/auray_construction.htm

http://www.arahina.com/auray.htm

Best regards

Chris Partridge said...

Mark, many thanks for the link and commend it to all. A very entertaining account of building a Micro Auray while stuck in a company flat 300km from home, and rowing it in some fabulous scenery in NZ.